To think that in this America a man like Willie Nelson has the right, yes, the right, to choose who he supports in an election! How dare he assert his right as an American to…
Posts published in “Essays”
“Bring a large piece of uncooked meat with you when you come,” said the gruff voice on the phone. I thought it a rather odd and nonspecific request for a luncheon date but acceded, thinking…
Forget about the famed military-industrial complex of the Eisenhower years. It isn’t what it was. Yes, we have a military, but the industrial complex was shipped to China years ago. In current times, the political-media…
Can the credits wreck a film? I’m not talking about choking on a popcorn kernel when you see that the best boy happens to be the same guy who ran off with your wife. The…
Somewhere on a shadowy shelf, amid the dusty books and pamphlets here at the ranch, rests a newspaper from eighty-seven years ago. On those faded pages, no photos to spark the imagination, just words to…
Wildfires are old news. They’ve been old news for as long as humans have told stories about wildfires and tried to tame them, along with almost everything else that was wild. As soon as there…
Sometimes at Burning Man you just really screw up. You say something to someone, or do something that is really inexcusable and you’re mortified. But Wait! There’s a classy solution! Go to Camp Playapology! What?…
Readers of the Anderson Valley Advertiser may remember my “Odd Tree Out” articles from earlier this year, chronicling my rediscovery – after 20 years – of California nutmeg in an area west of Philo. With…